Steven D. Prager, PhD

Associate Professor

Geography

Class

One of our most important
responsibilities as university professors is to convey both complex
information and thinking skills to our students. The development of
skills and refinement of knowledge occurs both in the
classroom as well as in informal settings - as such, I structure my
courses to have significant elements of the learning process that occur
independent of direct oversight of the professor and that also allow
students the opportunity to work with one another. My course design
includes problem- and inquiry-based learning, active learning
activities to complement lecture, and a combination of assessment
approaches tied to the overall course objectives.

I teach the core classes in our GIScience conentration at the
University of Wyoming. These classes include our Introduction to GIS
(GEOG 4200) and Advanced GIS (GEOG 4210). In addtion, I regularly teach
Spatial Modeling and Geocomputation (GEOG 4220) and, depending on the
semester, I teach a seminar course in GIScience for Business and
Industry (GEOG 4240). I recently team-taught a graduate seminar on
ecological topology with ecologist William
A. Reiners - this was one of the most interesting
teaching experiences I have had to date. It was a pleasure to work with
Bill and the graduate students during our exploration of a relatively
ambiguous
concept and I learned a great deal about how to prepare and run a
successful seminar from an expert teacher and accomplished researcher.

Where possible, I have attempted to align my course objectives with the
knowledge areas, units and topics outlined in the GIS&T Body of
Knowledge published by the AAG
in collaboration with UCGIS.